Hearing aid equipment for confessionals



N. v. cAssoN HEARING AID EQUIPMENT FOR CONFESSIONALS v July 22, 1947.

Filed Oct. 17, 1945 Con TRQL CIRCUIT Priestls Settee- Ann/F1512}Patented July 22, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HEARING AID EQUIPMENTFOR CONFESSIONALS Nicholas V. Casson, New York, N. Y. ApplicationOctober 17, 1945, Serial No. 622,734

1 Claim.

This invention relates to ecclesiastical equipment.

More specifically, the invention pertains to apparatus for facilitatingth administration of the Sacrament of Penance of the Catholic Church,and, in particular, to acoustical apparatus for the purpose stated wherethe penitent is hard of hearing.

It has heretofore been proposed to provide, in regard to a penitentscubicle of the pluralcubicle article of church furniture colloquiallycalled the confessional, an ear-phone to be placed by him or her on orin back of the ear for transmitting to the audial nerve of the penitentthe words of the priest spoken by him into a microphone in the priestscubicle where the latter is seated.

Children as well as adults go to confession, and at the appointed timesboth the young and their elders enter a penitients cubicle one afteranother, without special segregation into age groups. Also, the doorwayinto a penitents cubicle, and, too, the doorway into the priestscubicle, each ordinarily closable by a swing-door or a curtain of theportiere type, arenever locked against ingress into these cubicles.Catholic churches generally, and always in the larger cities, are freelyopen to the public, from early morning until late at night, week-days aswell as Sundays and Ho-lydays; and, as is well-known children if healthyare generally mischievous-regardless of environment.

With the above referred to ear-phone, as is usual, merely hung on ahook-carrying pivoted arm, spring-pressed or otherwise biased to effecta swing to actuate a switch to close the communication circuit, butnormally held by the Weight of the therefrom suspended earphone tomaintain said circuit open normally, it has been found that children arelikely to enter the confessional, one into the priests cubicle andanother into the ear-phone equipped penitents cubicle, to play telephonecompany; Wasting electric power, and subjecting some of the delicateparts of the electrical apparatus to possible damageand with the entireproceeding a highly indecorus one in a house of worship.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide, in combination witha confessional equipped With telephonic apparatus, a means reallyefficacious to end repetition of such escapades; and this, preferably,not by throwing a switch in the priests cubicle to maintain open thecommunication circuit, in accordance with prior practice, but, insteador in addition acting to give such immediate warning, at a suitablepoint, say in the rectory, of mischief afoot, that the culprit can beapprehended for receipt of a lecture sufficiently stem to cure thatparticular culprit, at least, of the misdemeanor.

Another object is to provide an n u a ce against the possibility of achild who, from a waiting line of persons, some adults and some childrenand gathered near the confessional, enters the confessional when histurn is reached, from impishly or idly removing the-earphone from itssuspending pivoted arm or lever, as for temporary entertainment while inthe penitents cubicle and waiting for the priest to conclude administration of the Sacrament to a penitent in another penitents cubicle.It may be explained that the standard confessional is one havin threecubicles, a central one for the priest, and oppositely adjoining oneseach for one of two penitents; with means in both the side walls of thepriests cubicle, such as a slidable panel, whereby when one of thepenitents is actually at confession the other is precluded from hearingthe conversation between the priest and the confessing penitent.

The second-mentioned object is attained, preferably, by providing aspecial switch operated by swinging of the aforesaid pivoted arm orlever as the result of removing the ear-phone therefrom; this switch incircuit with a signal, desirably an electric light bulb of low candlepower, in the priests cubicle, which bulb is energized Whenever andduring all the time the ear-phone is off the hook on said arm.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will behereinafter pointed out or become apparent in the course of thefollowing description of a now preferred embodiment of the invention asillustratively shown in the accompanying drawing, which is largelydiagrammatic, both as to its showings of the cubicles of theconfessional, and as to where the various leads of the circuits areshown located.

Referring more in detail to the drawing, the broken lines respectivelyindicate, at 5 the floor of the church, at 6 the roof of theconfessional, and at 1, I the side walls of the priest's cubicle; onepenitents cubicle being beyond one of these walls and the otherpenitents cubicle beyond the other wall.

Ordinarily, only one of the penitents cubicles of a particularconfessional (a plurality of the latter being usually in a church) isequipped with the telephonic hearing aid; and for this reason, and tosimplify the drawing, that is the situation herein illustrated.

In connection with the penitents cubicle thus equipped, it is customaryto provide an exterior sign and an interior sign; the preferred practicebeing to have these signs of translucent material, to be illuminated bya backing electric light bulb. The exterior sign is indicated at 8, andthe interior sign at 9; the latter, of course, lighted up by a bulb oflow candle power. The sign 8 may read Equipped with hearing device; andthe sign 9 may read For those hard of hearing, lift receiver and placeon or in back of ear.

Such signs have previously been employed, as also the following elementsof the communication system shown in the drawing: Across main supplylines 10 and I I, for, say, 110 volts, is the high voltage coil of a,step-down transforme l2 for setting up a 6-volt potential in a circuitincluding leads [4 and I5, and in which in parallel are electric lightsbulbs l1, l8 and l9. The bulb l1 illuminates sign 8, the bulb l8 sign 9,and the bulb l9 the location of the ear-phone or receiver 20; the latterhaving a handle 2| and an eye 22 for engaging a, hook 23 formed on apivoted arm or lever 24 fulcrumed at 25. When the receiver 20 is liftedfrom the arm 24, a normally open communication circuit is closed; suchcircuit including the priests microphone 26, leads 21, 21, amplifier 28,and leads 29, 29 between the amplifier and the receiver 20 provided, ofcourse, the handswitch 30 in the priests cubicle has been closed byhim-and, provided, further, the current source lll is connected in.

In the case of the present invention, this connecting in of the currentsource is shown as effected by energizing the well-known electricaldevice termed a transformer-relay (of which one type, purchasable on theopen market, is manufactured by Mercoid Corporation, Chicago, Ill.)indicated generally and more or less schematically at 3|, andfunctioning as a 2-volt-control circuit means, and hence as a workingpart of a 2- volt control circuit for the communication circuit. Thiscontrol circuit includes leads 32, 32, each between one of the ends of acoil 33 of the transformer-relay and one of two contacts 34, 35,adjacent to the arm of the receiver-suspending lever 24 opposite to thearm thereof carrying the hook 23. Normally, these contacts areseparated; but, as will be seen, when the lever becomes relieved ofsuspending the weight of the receiver, the resilient blade whichconstitutes the contact 34 is cammed into engagement with contact 35,thereby closing the control circuit.

The manner in which closing of the control circuit effects connection ofthe amplifier with the power source will be readily understood when itis explained that the connection last-mentioned includes a tiltableliquid-mercury switch 36 normally lying to interrupt current flowrelative to leads 31, 31a and 31b interposed between the amplifier andthe power-supply line In. When the coil 33 of the transformer-relay isenergized by closing of the control circuit, however, the magneticfields set up about said coil and the other coil 36' of said relay, thelatter in a lead 36", coact to cause a tilt of the switch 36sufficiently to cause flow of the mercury pool therein to the endthereof entered by end points of the leads 31, 31 and so conductivelycouple these points.

At the same time, in parallel with the communication circuit 21-29 is afirst signal circuit 40, and a second signal circuit 4|.

The signal circuit 40 includes leads 42 and extends preferably to apoint a distance from the confessional, say to the rectory, foractuating a signal there; illustrated as an electric bell 43.

The signal circuit 4| is desirably local to the confessional, forinspection, by the priest while in his cubicle, of the signal actuatedby the closing of this circuit. This signal is illustrated as anelectric light bulb 44 of low lumen-value.

The last-named circuit may have interposed therein a hand-switch, shownat 45, and desirably located in the priests cubicle, whereby, when thepriest takes up his post there, he may render the signal circuit 40inoperative for the time being.

Thus, whenever the receiver 20 is lifted from its support for itsintended purpose, which means that the .priest is in his cubicle, thelatter is apprised of the fact that he should now whisper into themicrophone; whereas, if the receiver is ever lifted from its support fora mischievous or malicious purpose, notification will be givenimmediately at the proper point, say in the public hall of the rectory.

It is to be understood that all matter contained in the abovespecification or shown in the accompanying drawing is to be taken in anillustrative and not in a limiting sense. The scope of protectioncontemplated is to be taken solely from the appended claim, this to beinterpreted as broadly as is consistent with the prior art.

Variations and modifications may be made within the scope of theinvention, and parts of the improvements may be used Without others.

I claim:

In apparatus of the kind described and including a confessional having apriests cubicle and a. penitents cubicle and with a telephonetransmitter in the priests cubicle and a, telephone receiver in thepentitents cubicle and with means manually operable from within thepenitents cubicle to close a normally open gap in a .communicationcircuit including said transmitter and receiver, the combination of asignal, a circuit other than the communication circuit in which saidsignal is interposed, and means for actuating said signal when said gapis closed, the last-named means including a control circuit for thesecond-mentioned circuit and also including a transformer relaypartially interposed in the control circuit and partially interposed insaid second-mentioned circuit.

NICHOLAS V. CASSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,772,587 Wallace Aug. 12, 19302,320,726 Herckmans June 1, 1943

